N62 4.8 Oil Thermostat Gasket Leak (2007 X5)

[LightlyToasted]

Originally Posted by Entropy

Did you also do the oil line o-rings that attach to the thermostat (P/N 17227800958)?

I chose to replace these o-rings, rather than risk having to do this job again. The dealer charged me $11 each for the o-rings. The old ones looked fine - not flat, hard, and brittle like the thermostat gasket.

[Xor]

I replaced the o-rings as well. As said above they're $11 each, but I wouldn't forgive myself if I could but didn't and it started to leak

[Westlotorn]

I installed new O Rings for sure, would not do the job without that addition. Way to much work to come back for a future leak.
Grinding down the Torx bit early would have saved me an hour or more. I fought it first before grinding down my tool, the tool is less than $10 to replace with one not ground down.

[Nanniepoo]

My first response disappeared. Anyways, had a slow oil leak since October. When in for unrelated work (and before I even noticed a leak), dealer diagnosed leaking valve cover and timing cover gaskets. When parking the car noticed a significant puddle of oil under it Sunday. Had it towed to an indy, and they've diagnosed the massive leak so far as front left area of engine but we're not sure....so I think I'm in this club as well. Unfortunately I really really don't have time to do this myself, and from some of the responses, I don't think I'd want to either (not really useable garage, would be on jack stands in ~20 deg weather.

[Nanniepoo]

Car had been leaking a quart every 2 months, not sure if that was the valve covers, this, or a combo. Really hoping just the oil cooler, and this will fix it.

[Entropy]

Originally Posted by Westlotorn

I installed new O Rings for sure, would not do the job without that addition. Way to much work to come back for a future leak.
Grinding down the Torx bit early would have saved me an hour or more. I fought it first before grinding down my tool, the tool is less than $10 to replace with one not ground down.

I have had to do this before. Hopefully the one I have that is already ground down is the right size for this job. I'll be tackling it next weekend... in the cold, as my E46 is taking up the garage.

[Westlotorn]

Mine is running with no leaks, now I find the AC unit is growling, could only hear it while in the garage with hood open. Another 2 days and $850. Grrrrrrr.

[Entropy]

Originally Posted by Westlotorn

Mine is running with no leaks, now I find the AC unit is growling, could only hear it while in the garage with hood open. Another 2 days and $850. Grrrrrrr.

The mechanical build quality on BMWs is pretty sad. I will probably look outside of BMW once I am done with my E70. I'm sure reliability is one reason BMW was passed up by MB in 2016.

[BustedKnuckles]

Originally Posted by Entropy

The mechanical build quality on BMWs is pretty sad. I will probably look outside of BMW once I am done with my E70. I'm sure reliability is one reason BMW was passed up by MB in 2016.

I feel ya.. I've had an E36, E46 and now my E70.. my 3 series were both great and I drove the piss out of them up to nearly 200k miles with only typical repairs for any vehicle with that kind of mileage. My X is a bit "special". I must say however that all of the woes I have experienced thus far have been with the motor. I've had a couple other issues with it that were "self-inflicted" (me being careless). And a few strange occurrences that only happened once and seemed to have fixed themselves. My door tweeter speaker BLARED static one day while the car was just sitting turned off in my garage. A couple minutes later it just randomly stopped and hasn't happened since. These cars seem to have their own personalities. I LOVE my X but sometimes feel like I'm driving a fancy, expensive, pretty, piece of shit with a luxurious interior and aesthetically pleasing exterior. And some of the engineering designs leave me scratching my head...

I've owned it less than a year though so we will see how things turn out in the long run...

[Entropy]

Originally Posted by BustedKnuckles

I feel ya.. I've had an E36, E46 and now my E70.. my 3 series were both great and I drove the piss out of them up to nearly 200k miles with only typical repairs for any vehicle with that kind of mileage. My X is a bit "special". I must say however that all of the woes I have experienced thus far have been with the motor. I've had a couple other issues with it that were "self-inflicted" (me being careless). And a few strange occurrences that only happened once and seemed to have fixed themselves. My door tweeter speaker BLARED static one day while the car was just sitting turned off in my garage. A couple minutes later it just randomly stopped and hasn't happened since. These cars seem to have their own personalities. I LOVE my X but sometimes feel like I'm driving a fancy, expensive, pretty, piece of shit with a luxurious interior and aesthetically pleasing exterior. And some of the engineering designs leave me scratching my head...

I've owned it less than a year though so we will see how things turn out in the long run...

Yep my E46 made it to 150k with routine maintenance. Your comment about the X being a shiny turd rings pretty true here (primarily only powertrain issues), but I couldn't imagine daily-ing a car without BMW interior anytime soon.